The reason why we fail

[Keith Walters]

 

There was a time that some computer people thought that QWERTY keyboards would be the way to input flying info.

 

Until recently, in US forensics-centered Crime shows it seemed nobody was allowed to use a mouse.

And, even though a technician might have been working in the lab, doing the same things for 10 years, they never seemed to be capable of making the connection between a vague rectangle in a cheap surveillance camera still, and a car's license plate.

 

They could only activate the "enhance" algorithm when Horatio (or whoever) said "Enhance That!".

 

"Jeez; I would never have thought of THAT in a million years, Mr Crane!"

"That" replaces/removes sunglasses, "is why you're a lowly lab technician and I'm ..."

(Actually, I'm not sure his title is :D )

 

Now of course, they control see-through glass screens by self-consciously dragging their fingers across the surface. Which looks just slightly more intuitive and user friendly than using punched cards....

[Phil Rhodes]

Yup, and soon so too will be all the 2012 stuff....

Are you referring to filmmaking, or that irksome little sports event we've got coming up where my route from here to central London will be blocked by the madding crowds, cheering on people in spandex?

[Brian Drysdale]

Until recently, in US forensics-centered Crime shows it seemed nobody was allowed to use a mouse.

they control see-through glass screens by self-consciously dragging their fingers across the surface. Which looks just slightly more intuitive and user friendly than using punched cards....

 

Is that the one where they wander around crime scenes in their designer leather jackets and hair styles instead of wearing total coverage overalls?

http://www.csr.uk.net/cms/index.php/products/26-forensic-consumables

[Keith Mottram]

Here's what I'm watching at the moment/ and or recently... Bored to death, Hung, Treme, True Blood, Eastbound and Down, Curb, Entourage... hmmm bit of a pattern there, on the other hand I do watch Newsnight, loved Wonders of the Solar System and I think that the BBC's HD world cup coverage was the best sport coverage I have ever seen- there set was worth every penny/ dime of my licence fee. And to think I have about a hundred channels on my box...

[Chris Keth]

Until someone forgets to oil all the mechanical digital clocks on the bridge....

 

I find most US-made Sci-Fi appallingly short-sighted in the special effects department. It's often full of computer equipment supposedly from centuries in the future featuring curved display screens of the type that most of us stopped using stopped early this century!

 

In 2001 A Space Odyssey on the other hand , made in 1967, the astronauts used what looked pretty much like iPads for portable video display. A scene showing one of those casually left lying on a benchtop would have taken days to set up. OK, the resr-projected "computer displays" look a bit clunky now, but you need to remember that in 1967, very few computer installations even had CRT displays, virtually everything was printed out on paper! The idea of a cockpit with dozens of colour displays really was Science Fiction then. (I do love the bit when Bowman asks HAL for a "hard Copy", a punched card spits out of the benchtop, though).

 

 

 

Couldnl't be much worse than

Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

The "2150" has got to be the handiwork of some marketing numskull, because there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the movie that suggests they are anywhere but a rather shopworn part of 1960s London! Just a lot of pre-WWII brick buildings, everybody wearing 1960s clothes, and nothing but 1960s technologies.

 

If things like this bother you, perhaps science fiction isn't for you. ;)

[Thomas James]

I think it would be impossible to propel George Orwells classic 1984 into the future by changing it to the year 2084 however I think science fiction can be written that is inspired by George Orwell. For example George Lucas "THX 1138" is obviously inspired by "1984" but is much more futuristic more like the year 2084. The death of George Orwell is a minor stumbling block. New episodes of Star Trek are created all the time even though Gene Rodenberry is dead.

[Ben J]

Television has become somewhat watered down, but I think that's due to the change in society. You can almost bet somebody somewhere will find something to be offended by now. Television is having to accommodate for a much more diverse array of people.

 

But my point is adults don't want to sit down and watch complex television.

 

You must not have heard of a little TV show called The Sopranos. Not only critically acclaimed but also the most financially successful show on cable. Nearly 12 million people watched the season finale when it originally aired.

[Jeffery Haas]

I try not to miss Top Gear

 

Missing an episode of Top Gear? Unthinkable, and should be illegal.

[Jeffery Haas]

Granted the US has some great gems for shows; The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, Breaking Bad, Weeds, Califorinacation et cetera. Notice most are all cable shows. Lost is perhaps the last great broadcast show, who knows what will follow.

 

Big Love. Somehow I don't think Big Love could ever translate to UK sensibilities though.

[Hal Smith]

I think I'll write an SF script where everyone is walking around fiddling with handheld communicators with a thousand times more computer power and infinitely better graphics than the Apollo moonships had. Oh damn, I'm too late...

 

It's called an iPhone.

[George Ebersole]

My two bits;

 

I'll echo about Brit concepts being imported to the U.S. market.

 

As for TV in general, well, it's all focus grouped now. So whole cloth concepts about a spaceship, submarine crew, spy-team of somekind, won't cut it unless they target a specific market with buying power.

 

Females like dancing and famous people, so you get pure and utter crap like "Dancing with the Stars" (a Brit concept, BTW) put on air. All the while that really cool period drama gets tossed into the waste paper basket because it's too expensive, caters to adult men (they only buy stuff when sports are on), and excludes women, who buy all sorts of junk for the home.

 

Getting back to the article; yeah, Doc Who is a kids' show, but it's a good one. Still geared for kiddies, which is probably why I don't have any classic Doc Who DVDs in my library.

[Phil Rhodes]

It was my impression that period drama was really the only thing that we get to export, because British accents somehow seem "right".

 

Does the US market not like period US stuff? There's obviously a rich vein of history to depict. What happened to Mark Twain adaptations?

 

P

[George Ebersole]

It was my impression that period drama was really the only thing that we get to export, because British accents somehow seem "right".

 

Does the US market not like period US stuff? There's obviously a rich vein of history to depict. What happened to Mark Twain adaptations?

 

P

Phil, I love period stuff. Two of my favorites are "Sharpe's Rifles" ("Rifleman Sharpe" in the UK, I believe) and the old "Cadfael" TV series. Various other Brit imports. They're good. Well written with high production values.

 

People with taste love 'em. But people with taste don't spend their money wildly like teenage girls and mothers of said girls.

[George Ebersole]

The gist of my previous replying being that the young female demographic is the one you need to target to get advertiser dollars. Otherwise you show, no matter how artsy, ain't going to get made.